, 1887-10-02
HAWTHORNE'S HAUNTS.
Sources Whence the Future Nov
elist Drew Inspiration.

COue very pleaSluR anu Interesting blOR-
raphies OF Hawthorne have been written.
Indeed as much has been said of the man
as the man ever said of men or the emo
tons, dJings and a of men. But
in all this, it seems to me, the most win
some and necessary chapter of his life has
never been told.
Biography of great men, relating a
series of sequential conquests, has but
little more than reference interest, and no
more than chronoloRic value. This, pre-
cisely as with civil history.
Biography being the history of men,
and history the biography of events, true
biography should be more tLan the histo-
ry OF men, and true history more than
biography of events. That relation of
facts which shall give the world what 1t
demands to know of a man, as in the
case of Hawthorne, will not only state
his achievement, index his work, and ao-
quaint us with the
DETAIL OF HIS LIFE,
but it will do vastly more las will, for in
stance, the history of our late war, TOR a
right t. ling, reach more and more behind
the four Years of actual war into casual and
cumulative incidents); 1t will 40 generously
into the days and ways that formulated.
however painstakinE must be the task,
and give Us the very scene. sight, sIund
and surrounding which made from the
youth the man. Without this any man s
career is voiceless as u study. With this,
remote as we may be IRON fame our
aaIyaa mo NAV kn..uv - IL -, nu, r,.I
intelligence, and follow the aspiration
from which it grew into the utmost con
fines of its growth in Il revelation OF simple
personality that is eve a gpodly company.
An earnest quest fer this earlier, inner
moldlng and growth in Hawthorne, forces
the most generous judgment TO insist that
the story Of his life is yet unwritten And
If it Is 20 be done, the writer who shall
compass so good a work must not delay
1t must be done within this century; in
deed within
This VERY DECADE,
and largely here, because of what his life
here gained. For here on the shore ut
this inland.sea. the Hawthorne who wrote
was made; and here the many old folk l
have happy stumbled upon aud awakened
10 eagerly tell with their own lips how the
century came 10 with them, and Of Nat
Hathorn, y their playfellow of that time,
are already faint OF voice, dim of eye aud
memory and, one by one. are passing from
sight as Is lost a noble book that should
have been read.
All biographies Of Haathorne vaguely
hint Of his hoyhood here. Not one does
more than this. Il ~uelieve," bitterly as
serted a playtellow of H%uwthorne's still
living here, mot one of them all ever
anne this far from a library"
Some, as if to defend their W re
missDess, by implication convey the un
truth that his youthful surroundings at
this place we're barren of promptings to a
literary career. The most unimpassiye
clod could not but feel the glowing inspir-
alton that throbs and pulses on ever,
hand. Possessing the knowledge of his
career and genius, the contemplation of
these very surroundings, influencing as
they did the most impressible period of
his life, instantly removes the false and
morbid mystery of his nature. 1t floods
with a new and welcome light upon the
developing environment of his awakening
genius. 1t gives him who comes as
friend warm greeting by the hand of a
hearty lad who was neither a r~ecluse nor
a cynic. While God was f~ltering through
the Deeuteous scenes his eyes here beheld
the magic wizard wealth for ultimate
achievement, the boy Hawthorne stole
watermelons and hunted woodchucks," as
the %nelghbors can yet prove to you, Just
as you did in your youthtide, and just as
YOUR o Is DOING NOW.
And it does one good to know it and see
the mandy PANTY mawkishness of this
Hawthorne witchcraft disappear, that
something with human ruggedness and
~roughness, with even a spice of rogueish.
ness, may sturdily take its place.
10 those lntereste in tracing the form.
ulative period of Americas greatest
romancer, it should be made quite clear
how his good fortune led him where SO
much was inwrought and stored in his
master mind, even though the hioVraphers
~unaccountably ignore this most important
chapter of his life. On the death Of Capt.
Nathaniel Hawthorne ''or Hathorn,"
OF fever at Surinam in 1908, his widow
and three children including young Ma
thaDiel, then but four years Of age, were
practically unprovided for. The widow
was the daughter of John Manning, of
Salem, whose third marriage Ito Ruth
Potter produced six children. Among
these were Elizabeth Clark Manning,
afterwards Capt. H~awthornels wife and
mother of the novelist; William Manning
who at one time employed young Ma
thaulel as his private secretary; Robert
Manning, who built the fine old
MANNING MANSION"
here, and who paid Hawthorne's way
through Bowdoin College; and Richard
Manning, into whore hands the Sebago
lake property subsequently, fell. The
Mannlngs were people of means. John
Manning, the grandfather, was one of a
company owning large tracts of land on
the eastern shore of Sebago lake.
The Hawthorne family became the
atfectionately cared for wards of the Man
ninRs, at Salem, and in 1912 they re.
moved to Sebago lake as members Of
Richard Manning's family At this time
young Nathaniel was s years of age, and
he remained here until the latter part OF
1878, when he returned to Salem to pre-.
pare for Bowdo nnnder his uncle Roberts
kindly charge. Thus the lad lived on the
shores of Lake Sebago from his sth until
his 18th year; while during his four years
of preparatory study at Salem and his
four years of college life at Brunswick,
Me-, IN the same county of Cumberland